TunerWire Live

22 Entries: Showing 1 - 10 Order by: Title ↑ Title ↓ Date ↑ Date ↓

The Enduro System announced

Following strong demand from The Tuners Group's racing customers for a system of products to set up cars for multiple drivers in endurance events, we are pleased to announce The Enduro System.

If you are running your car in an endurance event with multiple drivers and driver changes, different drivers want to use their favourite steering wheel for their stints behind the wheel in enduros, and different drivers have different driving positions, due to factors that cannot be changed such as different driver heights and arm reach lengths etc.

In the past, your only option was to come up with a compromise - a compromise on which steering wheel to use, and a compromise on driving position.

But you end up with a driver position that is not correct for any of the drivers, and a frequently a steering wheel that only one driver likes.

Put any driver in a compromised, uncomfortable driving position, and the end result is always increased fatigue, and less driver endurance.

And anyone who has ever competed in an endurance race knows that as soon as you get fatigued, your concentration drops, lap times get slower, you lose ground against your opposition, and safety is compromised.

So we sat down and thought "there simply must be a better way", and set about solving the problem ...

Like most engineering problems, if you work hard enough, you eventually find an elegant solution.

The result is a package of products which we've nicknamed "The Enduro System".

Click here to learn more about "The Enduro System"

created on 2008-11-19 by adamr.

HRE Wheels releases new rims for Nissan Skyline R35 GT-R

HRE Wheels' R35 GT-R on their stand at the 2008 SEMA show. The wheels are HRE 749R's

Hot on the heels of Nissan's official launch of the Skyline R35 GT-R, HRE wheels has developed a brand new wheel specifically for the new GT-R, and showcased a modified GT-R with HRE Wheels at the SEMA show last week.

The photo above shows HRE's R35 with a set of HRE 749R forged 3-piece wheels.

We love the look of HRE's R35 - in typical HRE style the car looks purposeful and slightly understanded, with a fair dose of menace thrown in - a fantastic overall look.

Nissan R35 GT-R with HRE's special P40 Forged Monoblock wheels for the R35. These wheels can accept the Nissan factory tyre pressure sensors.

In addition to the HRE 749R wheels shown on the SEMA show car, HRE have also developed a special one piece forged monoblock wheel specifically for the R35 GT-R.

It is based on HRE's proven P40 Monoblock design.

It is typically light like all HRE Wheels, and has been designed so that Nissan's factory tyre pressure monitoring devices can be installed into these wheels.

The ECU in the R35 monitors tyre pressures and puts the car in a "limp home" mode if it detects a deflated tyre, so if you try to fit a set of wheels to an R35 that do not allow the factory Nissan tyre pressure sensors to be used, you'll quikcly find your car in "limp home" mode.

By contrast, because HRE's new wheels allow for the factory Nissan tyre pressure sensors to be used, limp home mode is not triggered, so you can explore your GT-R to it's true potential, on lightweight forged wheels and with whatever kind of rubber you want to run.

There has been a lot of publicity about the factory run flat tyres on the R35, and from a performance point of view, as reported in this post on the Skylines Australia forum by scathing ...

"... some guys in the US ran the car back to back with the stock 20" wheels and tyres, vs 18" TE37s shod with Michelin Pilot Sport Cups. 3s a lap faster on a 1:30 duration."

So given that HRE Wheels now have applied their experience to producing some incredibly well engineered (and great looking) wheels for the R35 that still retain the Nissan factory tyre pressure sensors, and given the clear lap time advantage of running track friendly rubber on the R35, HRE Wheels' range of R35 wheels look like being yet another winner from HRE.

You can check out photos of HRE Wheels for the Nissan R35 GT-R in our
Nissan R35 GT-R HRE Wheels Gallery.

Click here to view the HRE Wheels section of our site

created on 2008-11-19 by adamr.

Man builds Lamborghini Countach replica from scratch in his basement

What do you do if you want a Lamborghini but like most of us don't have the cash to buy one ?

Well if you're Ken Imhoff of KI Engineering, the answer to that question is simple - you build yourself one by hand from scratch !

As reported by Jalopnik in their coverage of this story at jalopnik.com ...

"Seventeen years ago, Ken Imhoff watched Cannonball Run and became so enamored with the Lamborghini Countach in the film, he hand-built his own, in his basement.

In what we imagine might be the most Jalopnik build ever undertaken, Ken designed and fabricated his own tig-welded frame, installed a thoroughly massaged 351 cubic inch V8 with a ZF-25 5-speed transmission, hand-formed the aluminum body over a meticulously measured and accurate body form, and finished it all off in a beautiful metallic gray.

It took Ken 10 years to complete the project, and the results — as you can see both in the gallery and in the video below the jump — are amazing. There's only one problem, when you build a car in a basement — how do you get it out? ...

Ken went into the project fully aware of the problem of a getting the car out of his basement — it was your classic ship-in-a-bottle project problem. When the faux Lambo was complete, he actually hired a contractor to knock out a part of the basement wall, build an earthen ramp, and then drag the car out of its subterranean workshop."

Ken started by making a wooden buck ...

... then a tube frame chassis ...

... added a 351 cubic inch V8 ...

... and hand formed all the panels himself ...

The results are absolutely stunning - this is definitely not a kit car ...

Read how he built it by clicking here

created on 2008-11-15 by adamr.

2025 Race Cars - is this how racecars will look in the future ?

At the recent LA Motor Show, a contest of great interest was the Motor Sports 2025 Design Challenge.

The brief was for designers to come up with designs of what they thought racing cars might look like in 2025, and the results are amazing.

Entries were received from Audi, BMW, GM, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Mercedes and VW.

Toyota entered a wild looking Le Mans racer design shown above.

Audi also entered this cutting edge Le Mans racer design.

Mitsubishi's entry (shown above) was particularly interesting. As it says on the Design Challenge website ...

"While the look is shocking, the multi-terrain, omnidirectional wheels consist of eight independently-controlled motors, allowing for “8 x 4” wheel drive so that the car can be driven forward while pointing in any direction. The MMR25 drives sideways into a corner and points the nose of the car outwards before even reaching the apex of the curve while driving sideways or backwards.

The MMR25 also uses special Oblique Aerodynamics to give the vehicle aero advantages. The center wing acts as a spoiler, actuated by pneumatic and fabricated from Memory Metal Alloy while the front and rear spoilers double as suspension blades which are able to control stiffness and ride height."

So if you thought the future of motoring was going to be all about boring design, and electric vehicles that you could outrun on a pushbike, think again ... how much fun does this look ? ...

Check out the gallery of entries at

http://www.laautoshow.com/DesignChallenge.html

created on 2008-11-15 by adamr.

Eric Bana's New Movie - Love The Beast

For those of you who weren't up early awaiting the start of the V8 Supercars Bathurst 1000, Australian actor Eric Bana made an announcement live in pit lane at Bathurst that he is currently making a movie all about car culture, racing cars and mateship called "Love The Beast".

The Beast is Bana's beloved Ford XB GT Coupe which Bana has campaigned in many races, including the iconic Targa Tasmania.

When asked about why he decided to make the movie, Bana said ...

"My hobby happens to be racing and restoring old cars and loving them, and it occurred to me that it’s a very common thing in the world, people that have passions and hobbies, and I wanted to make a film about how important they are in our lives."

We're huge fans of Bana - his groundbreaking performance in BlackHawk Down really put him on the map in Hollywood, but he has remained down to earth and grounded - a very rare thing in Hollywood these days.

You can watch the video trailer for Bana's new movie by clicking here

And if you have never heard of the Australian Bathurst 1000, click here and prepare to be stunned.

created on 2008-11-15 by adamr.

The World's Most Powerful Blender ?

A few days ago we had a meeting with a company who we are looking at getting to do some work for us, so like we always do when we are getting to know a new supplier, we went to their workshop to get a feel for the kind of work they do, the kind of cars they build, and the attention to detail on the parts they manufacture.

One of their current projects is this amazing outlaw style Porsche 356 ...

They were making this amazing vintage style seat system for the 356, with old school alloy seats ...

But what really got our attention was something we spotted on a bench in their workshop ...

One of their fabricators has made this petrol powered blender, complete with pull starter and TIG welded alloy fuel tank !

Frankly we absolute love it, and at the end of the day we think that anyone who makes a blender like that is going to be exactly the kind of people we'll get on with just great !

Mango smoothie anyone ?

You are reading TunerWire Live - The Tuners Group's blog.

Designed as a sister publication to our periodical TunerWire email newsletter, we decided to introduce TunerWire Live as an instant, fast way to get your fix of what's going on in the world of the world's best car modifications and tuners.

Our articles in this section of our site are designed to be both informative and entertaining.

If you like what you read here, please consider subscribing to our free Tunerwire email newsletter. By subscribing to our free TunerWire email newsletter, you'll also be automatically entered into the draw to win a free Works Bell Rapfix II Quick Release and Works Bell Original Steering Wheel (shown below) in our Works Bell giveaway.

created on 2008-11-15 by adamr.

Tanner Foust Wins 2008 US Formula Drift With AEM EMS Engine Management System

We always love to see people winning championships using products from the manufacturers we represent, so we were extremely pleased to see US based drifter Tanner Foust back up his 2007 US Formula Drift Series win with another win in the 2008 Formula Drift Series.

As reported in autoblog.com's coverage of Tanner's win ...

"Tanner came into the final round this weekend at Irwindale Speedway at the top of the points race, and he needed to stay ahead of Sam Hubinette in his Dodge Viper and Rhys Millen in his Pontiac Solstice to capture his second straight championship.

He did just that, finishing in second place behind Vaughn Gitten Jr., who captured his first win in the series in his Falken Tire Ford Mustang. The top 16 drivers from the event also qualified for the upcoming Red Bull Drifting World Championship next month in Long Beach."

Tanner's car runs an AEM Universal EMS (engine management system). You can learn more about the AEM EMS by clicking on the video below - it's an outstanding system ...

So a huge congratulations to Tanner, and we look forward to watching you at the Red Bull Drifting World Championship.

Though we're an AEM supplier, Aussies Luke Fink, Leighton Fine and ex-pat Irishman Robbie Bolger who compete in Drift Australia will all be at the Red Bull Drifting World Championship, so we just have to barrack for the Aussies ! And if Bolger wins, we'll be claiming him as an Aussie of course !

A gallery of high resolution photos from the final round of Formula Drift for the season can be viewed by clicking here

created on 2008-11-15 by adamr.

Porsche: 1, Hedge Funds: 0 (or possibly less than zero)

Anyone who knows anything about Porsche knows that Porsche has had it's eye on Volkswagen for a VERY long time.

So it's a no brainer that in a climate like the current financial crisis, that Porsche might seize the opportunity to buy some VW stock.

Enter the hedge funds geniuses ...

Many hedge funds make money by a method called "short selling".

As the UK's Telegraph newspaper is reporting in this article ...

"Hedge funds have lost as much as €30bn (£24bn) short selling carmaker Volkswagen after the shares soared on the revelation that rival Porsche had secured 74pc of the equity and planned to seize control of its rival.

The €30bn hit is thought to be one of the heaviest losses on a single company's shares ever taken by hedge funds, which have already been hit hard by the turmoil in the markets.

"This is without question the biggest single loss on a single stock in the history of hedge funds. It's a bloodbath," said Laurie Pinto, a broker at North Square Capital, a division of Winterflood.

Porsche's disclosure on Sunday that it held 74pc of the car maker – rather than the previously assumed 42.6pc – prompted a huge scramble to cover short positions in Volkswagen, which had been the most shorted stock in Germany's benchmark DAX index.

With less than 6pc of the shares available to buy, VW soared as high as €1,005 in early trading yesterday, having already tripled in value on Monday. The shares, which closed at €210 on Friday, ended the day at €945.

One hedge fund said: "There have been some dark moments over the past few months but none blacker than this. We couldn't have dreamt a worse scenario." ...

Hedge funds had staked hundreds of millions of euros on VW shares falling in line with other car makers – short selling the equivalent of 13pc of the company's shares.

As well as the hedge funds, investment banks' proprietary desks are also believed to have short sold Volkswagen shares.

Shares in German banks fell amid speculation in the market that many of them were exposed to the fall out.

Morgan Stanley shares tumbled 12pc, forcing the bank to issue a statement stating that it did not have any exposure to VW. Goldman Sachs fell 6pc amid similar concerns of contamination.

Meanwhile, analysts claimed that Porsche had profited from the turmoil, sparking even more fury among traders.

Max Warburton, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein, claimed that the company had benefited not just from the rise in the share price but behind the scenes as the traders sought to unwind their positions.

In a note to clients, Mr Warburton said: "Porsche is making billions from this game – lending stock, buying then selling back, plus puts." He added: "This represents a breakdown in [the German] regulatory function in our view."

Porsche vehemently rejected the accusations. "The ones responsible are those that speculated with huge sums of money on a falling Volkswagen share price," said a spokesman."

So it's Porsche: 1, Hedge Funds: 0 (or possibly less than zero).

And yes, it made us feel all warm and fuzzy just typing that !

created on 2008-10-30 by adamr.

CEC Wheels' Article Titled "AC Schnitzer Destroys Counterfeit Wheels"

CEC Wheels have published an article on their website which reads ...

"No, "wheel tossing" is not the latest sports trend sweeping Germany. It's the management team at AC Schnitzer having a great time disposing of cheap and unsafe copies of AC Schnitzer wheels in their campaign to end piracy dubbed "Stop the Copy"."

Copy, counterfeit, fake and knock off automotive products costs the industry millions of dollars every year.

Worse still, sales of copy, counterfeit, fake and knock off automotive products deprive truly innovative manufacturers of the funds they need to develop new products.

So when we see stories like these of big successes by genuine innovative parts manufacturers, we cheer very loudly indeed.

The article on CEC's website reads ...

"False perceptions of poor image due to low quality, the safety hazard to consumers, and economic losses in the millions, are some of the reasons why AC Schnitzer is taking firm action against product piracy."

"With this first battle won, AC Schnitzer reaffirms their diligence by stating, "We will continue the fight against all product counterfeiters and hence make an active contribution to customer safety. When the customer buys AC Schnitzer products, he or she rightly expects high quality, extensively tested special products, which are guaranteed exclusive AC Schnitzer Original Parts.""

The aluminium from these destroyed wheels was sent to recycling.

A huge congratulations to all the staff at CEC Wheels and AC Schnitzer on this victory.

Please invite us along next time you have a "wheel destruction" party - it looks like a LOT of fun !

Click here to read the full article on the CEC Wheels website

created on 2008-10-21 by adamr.

The Tuners Group's Works Bell Australian Launch At Drift Australia Eastern Creek Sydney

A few weeks ago we headed out to Eastern Creek in Sydney for the Eastern Creek round of Drift Australia.

It was a huge weekend for us - our official launch of Works Bell's incredible quality products in Australia, and the official announcement of our appointment as Works Bell's exclusive Australian distributor.

Given Works Bell's unrivalled pedigree in Japanese drifting, a Drift Australia event at Eastern Creek International Raceway proved to be the ideal place to launch Works Bell's products in Australia.

The action was great on track and in the pits, with some extremely impressive machinery and driving on display.

And of course Works Bell's products were extremely well received by the Drift Australia teams, particularly now that Works Bell products can be supplied via The Tuners Group as Works Bell's exclusive authorised Australian distributor.

We brought along with us two Sydney based models who take care of our promotions.

The girls are not only stunning, but hard working and really genuinely nice people, so it's always a pleasure to work with them.

Many thanks to Autosalon Magazine's photographer Mark Pakula for his photos of our models which he has kindly given us permission to publish on our site here.

Mark's website is at

http://www.markpakula.com

We thoroughly recommend his work and he sells prints of many of his motorsport photos, so if you like his photography, contact Mark to purchase his high quality motorsport photos.

And no, we can't give you the models' phone numbers !

created on 2008-10-21 by adamr.